


suspended animation (patiently waiting for the end)

by Chaos_Greymistchild



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Artificial Intelligence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21916126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaos_Greymistchild/pseuds/Chaos_Greymistchild
Summary: Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck is new on the starship Zangetsu, piloted by Captain Kurosaki alongside his AI Urahara Kisuke, who seems to have an… unprecedented freedom on board the ship, if she was being entirely honest.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 6
Kudos: 134
Collections: UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4





	suspended animation (patiently waiting for the end)

**Author's Note:**

> UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4; prompt 38. Space AU / Space Opera AU
> 
> Title name is from the Soul Extract song "Cyrosleep". I absolutely recommend Soul Extract as something to at least try (My favourite is "Superheroes", in the same album).

“A new recruit, Ichi-chan?” a voice asked as soon as she stepped onto the deck of the (in)famous Zangetsu.

“Nelliel Tu Oderschvanck,” Captain Kurosaki introduced her, “Nelliel, this is Kisuke Urahara, our ship’s AI.”

“Call me Urahara,” the AI offered, manifesting as a hologram beside her suddenly.

“Even this far out in the ship, you have holographic projectors?” she couldn’t help but ask.

Hologram and captain shared a glance before Kurosaki shrugged. “She’ll find out eventually,” he pointed out, “but it’s your choice.”

A strange white fan materialized in the AI’s hand. “The holographic projectors everywhere gives me the range of movement matching a human’s because Ichi-chan insisted that I was to be treated as a human despite my current… condition. I used to be human, you see.”

“No way,” she breathed, “surely not… You’re the first successful human consciousness download?” she squealed, “I thought that every attempt to date ended in failure and at best, only partial download!”

“Nelliel!” Kurosaki snapped.

She belatedly curbed her excitement. “Sorry,” she said mulishly, “It’s just so interesting and exciting.”

Kisuke laughed and gave the impression of walking over to stand by Kurosaki’s side. “Relax, kid, I love it when they're enthusiastic about my field of study ("everything's your field of study," Kurosaki muttered to the side). Ichi-chan here is just very sensitive to this sort of thing.”

“Before he… died,” Kurosaki said with an odd twist to the set of his mouth, “Kisuke was my husband. Of course I’m sensitive.” And then he began walking down the corridor as if he hadn’t just dropped a massive bombshell on her. “Come on, you still need to meet the rest of the crew/”

Nelliel spluttered. “Wait, no, tell me more about Urahara, does he have two names because he used to be human. Urahara—”

Urahara simply winked out of existence, as was the prerogative of holograms everywhere, especially AIs.

“Nelliel?” Kurosaki called stiffly, “Are you coming?”

She yelped and decided to shelve her questions for now as she ran after Kurosaki. It would be very bad if she got lost.

“How does your relationship with Captain Kurosaki work?” she asked the hologram of Urahara sitting on her bunk a week later. When they had said 'the range of movement matching a human's', they'd _meant_ it. Nelliel had even caught sight of Urahara floating around in the bathroom, for some reason or other she hadn't dared to ask after.

“Whatever do you mean?” Urahara asked from behind that irritating fan.

She scowled at the fan. By now, she’d learned that he only ever brought it out to play innocent. “I _mean_ , how does it work at all, since Captain Kurosaki’s all noble with his heart on his sleeve and all that, and you’re legally dead and basically a copy of the original Urahara Kisuke’s personality and knowledge and that’s all.”

The fan flickered out of existence with a snap mimicking its closing, and Urahara turned unexpectedly serious. “I am,” he said steely and softly dangerous, “for all intents and purposes, that original Urahara Kisuke you speak of. I am the man that he married, and just because I died, doesn’t mean that Ichigo would stop trusting me with the starship he so loved and built with his own two hands.”

She looked down at her hands, crossed neatly in her lap.

“Yes, I quite agree, Nelliel Tu Oderschvanck, this is quite enough for today,” he continued in that quiet, deadly tone, “Until next time, then.”

She didn’t dare look up again until she was sure he had stopped manifesting in her room, although she knew better than to even think that he had stopped monitoring her. At least she had learned a valuable lesson today – formerly human AIs felt and expressed emotion, and she should have refrained from asking personal questions.

Urahara cared too much about Zangetsu to compromise their working relationship, although she wouldn’t be surprised if she was kicked off at the next spaceport or colony.

It took a while, but they eventually settled into a… rhythm of sorts, Nelliel supposed. She only asked Urahara technical questions and he only responded if he felt like it, otherwise just disappearing to signal the end of the conversation. Kurosaki and their relationship remained a banned subject. Surprisingly, she hadn’t been replaced at the next colony (Las Noches, her home colony, ironically), but she chalked that up to Urahara not wanting to involve Kurosaki.

Things probably would have remained locked in this impasse, if the Wandenreich hadn’t ambushed them in the dark stretch of space between the Sereitei colony and the 50th West Rukongai starport.

“It would perhaps be best for you all to raise your hands and surrender now,” a smooth voice said as soon as it had been patched through.

“Who are you?” Urahara was quick to ask, “You are not any of Senbonzakura’s crew.”

“I’m glad you asked,” the voice cackled menacingly, “I am Äs Nödt of the Wandanreich, captain of the starship _The Fear_. If you don’t surrender, I’ll use my _Fear_ to freeze you in such deep-seated terror, you’ll never be able to move again!”

For a long moment, Kurosaki didn’t say anything. When he spoke again, his voice was calm. “Everyone, grab your weapons. Kisuke, I leave my _Zangetsu_ in yours and _Banihime_ ’s capable hands.”

Everyone pulled out their main ship-safe weapons with matching wild grins. Most of them popped out swords of all shapes and origins, although notable excepts included Chad, who had a pair of exoskeletal metal arms; Inoue with her energy needles; and herself with her lance.

“So that’s your answer?” Äs muttered over the still-connected line, “Well in that case, don’t mind us turning you all to sludge in recyc.”

Nelliel tuned the maniac out in favour of figuring out where on the ship she would have the space to swing her Lanzador Verde properly. Kurosaki must have thought about it previously, because he motioned for her to stay on the spacious bridge, while he swung his sword onto his shoulder and disappeared into an inconspicuous side room that she had previously thought unimportant.

When Äs and his men breached onto the bridge, she did all that she could to stop them and draw attention away from the room that Kurosaki had left to guard. Either something had given her away or Äs had already known it was there and come for it specifically, but they beat her into the ground until she could barely move and left her lying in the rubble of the crater her flying body had caused and made a bee-line for that room.

She waited until the healing factor she had carefully concealed kicked in, then clawed her way over behind them.

Anything she might have said died on her tongue and anything she might have done was driven from her mind entirely.

A giant, test tube-style capsule took up the majority of the room. Preserved, floating inside it, was the impossibly still-alive figure of Urahara Kisuke. The wrathful Urahara floating in front of it was utterly terrifying, but only for that split second before she registered the familiar transparentness of a hologram.

Kurosaki was furious, and fended off the intruders where they couldn’t, until everyone who was recovering, or had recovered already, helped to kill the intruders. Nelliel stepped over Äs’ bloody corpse towards the capsule unit.

“So that’s why you always insisted you were original goods, huh?” she asked the Zangetsu in general tiredly, “because you _were_ original goods and alive the entire time.”

Urahara’s hologram flickered out of existence.

“Yes,” he answered her over the PA system, “Are you satisfied _now_ , Nelliel?”

Urahara Kisuke and Captain Kurosaki Ichigo had an undeniable rapport. Urahara often had a task lined up or completed before Kurosaki even needed to vocalise a request or order. Kurosaki knew how to read every inch of Urahara and always seemed to understand everything he didn’t say as easily as he understood everything Urahara did say.

Perhaps that was enough for a relationship, even one between an AI and a human, that unshakable trust, understanding, and simple yet heartfelt emotional intimacy.


End file.
